Evaluation of Good Hygiene Practices in Food Trucks from the Perspective of Internal and External Auditors

The objective of this study was to evaluate good hygiene practices in food trucks, and to verify if there is a difference between the evaluation made by internal auditors and by that of an external auditor. The transversal study was conducted in 95 food trucks in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. A checklist for good hygiene practices was applied during the work routine by internal auditors (owner or manager of each food truck) who evaluated their own food trucks and by an external auditor (who did not work directly with the food trucks) who assessed all the food trucks under study. There was significant difference (p < .01) in the assessment of good hygiene practices between the external and internal auditors. The external auditor was more critical in rating the specific good hygiene practices than the internal auditors (p < .01), indicating their impartial assessment of the routine activities and of the good hygienic practices in the food trucks. This study revealed the importance of internal and external auditors in the evaluation of sanitary risks in food trucks and demonstrated that external auditors are less prone to bias. We concluded that external audits are an effective tool for improving food safety in street food.